Manila-On May 13, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) launched a new fellowship program for Philippine academic officials that will equip them to develop innovative and high-impact programs in higher education.
The Higher Education Innovation Leaders Fellowship Program, part of USAID’s five-year, P1.6-billion ($30 million) United States-Philippines Partnership for Skills, Innovation, and Life-long Learning (UPSKILL) initiative, will bring together 16 senior academic officials from across the Philippines for an 8-month learning experience that will empower them to drive innovation within their organizations.
“This fellowship program represents our investment in developing leaders who will inspire change and strengthen the country’s higher education sector through innovation and collaboration,” USAID Philippines Mission Director Ryan Washburn said during the launch.
The inaugural cohort is composed of two CHED officials and senior academic officials from Ateneo de Davao University, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University Manila, De La Salle University Laguna, Far Eastern University, Mapua University, Mariano Marcos State University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Saint Louis University, University of the Philippines, and the University of San Carlos.
The fellows will engage in learning sessions covering global trends in higher education, driving organizational reforms, and crafting innovative solutions to enhance the impact of higher education programs. The highlight of the program is a week-long immersion at Arizona State University, ranked as one of the most innovative universities in the United States.
“These fellows will be bringing contributions and cultivating advocacies of transformation through the fellowship program. I look forward to seeing (them) working collectively toward a goal of a strengthened higher education system leading to inclusive growth in the Philippines,” CHED Chairman Dr. J. Prospero De Vera III said.
During the launch, USAID and CHED also signed a memorandum of understanding that formalizes the areas of collaboration between the United States and the Philippines under USAID’s UPSKILL program. Through UPSKILL, USAID will provide technical assistance in crafting the Philippines’ Higher Education Sectoral Development Plan and implementing the Philippine Qualifications Framework. USAID will also support the development of CHED’s One-Touch Management Information System, a unified platform that will help streamline access to essential services and data visualizations for CHED and its stakeholders.
USAID supports the Philippines’ efforts to strengthen its educational system. Since 2012, USAID has invested more than P3 billion ($60 million) to improve Philippine higher education. (PR)
Let’s enter into the wisdom of the cross
THE gospel reading of the Mass on Tuesday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time (Mk 9,30-37) reminds us that true wisdom, given our wounded human condition here on earth, can only be found in the cross of Christ.
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise,” Christ told his bewildered disciples as it does to all of us now. But the fact is that it is through Christ’s suffering and death that our redemption is achieved. His resurrection, his victory over all our sins and death itself, is achieved through the cross. This is how we have to see the value and the wisdom of the cross.
We need to understand, guided by our Christian faith, that if we want to be truly wise, we need to look at Christ’s cross, understand its significance, and start to be consistent with it.
This is the kind of wisdom every believer and follower of Christ should have. It’s not enough to have the wisdom of this world, no matter how practical that may be, nor the wisdom of the flesh, no matter how mind-blowing, much less the wisdom of words, no matter how clever.
The wisdom of the cross is first of all a gift of the Holy Spirit to us before it becomes a virtue in us. Since it’s a gift, we have to pray for it constantly and be as receptive to it as we can be. Since it’s a gift that needs to be a virtue, we have to cultivate and develop it also.
The wisdom of the cross is the most perfect gift, embodying all the other spiritual gifts, since it makes charity complete and perfect by infusing light and love into our soul.
With it we are able to discern God and the divine things in everything that we see and do. It gives us the appetite to relate everything to God, linking us to God through the things of this world.
It goes beyond understanding and knowledge which enable us to know divine and natural things in themselves and in their mutual relations, but without relating them to God, their ultimate cause.
These gifts and virtues do not automatically lead us to love, since they fall short of bringing us to God who is love, as St. John said so succinctly. It’s wisdom that does that. Wisdom makes us into contemplative souls, seeing and loving God in everything.
With this definition of wisdom, it can be said that it’s hardly seen around, since that reference to God is scarcely done in the things we do. We think, reason out, speak, act and behave often by ourselves, without God.
But it can reside deep in our hearts, not visible to our senses and our worldly ways. As the Book of Wisdom says: “In each generation wisdom passes into holy souls, she makes them friends of God and prophets.” (7,27)
In cultivating and developing wisdom as a virtue in us, we need to struggle against things like laziness, disorder, unhealthy attachments, pride and all forms of sin. In fact, everything can be a frontline in this struggle.
Thus, this wisdom has to be the wisdom of the cross, which is the wisdom of Christ, since Christ showed the ultimate saving truth and love, and shares these things with us up to now, by dying on the cross.